WASHINGTON - The Senate begins debate on an immigration bill today and a leading Republican says the debate may tie up the chamber for a while.
"It's got to go on for at least a couple of weeks to give everybody the opportunity in the Senate to feel like they've had their chance to offer amendments that they think would improve the bill," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record), R-Ky., said Sunday.
The bill would offer legal status to most of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants while also toughening border security.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), the lead Democratic negotiator, said the bill would create "a tough but fair path to citizenship" for millions of immigrants.
"The bill isn't exactly the way I would have written it, but it is a strong compromise and the best chance we will have to finally fix this broken system," he said. "The price of inaction is too high."
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